After months of hard work, you find out your client’s injury case has settled. You feel a huge sense of relief. Finally, the work is done and it will be smooth sailing from here on out. That is, until you…
Post Category: Litigation
Hiring Expert Witnesses
By John Allison, J.D., The Coach for Lawyers, LLC Expert witnesses can express opinions about matters within the scope of their expertise. They are indispensable in cases involving medical, scientific or technical issues. Expert witnesses who are able to explain…
San Francisco Superior Court Launches Pilot Judicial Settlement Program to Settle Larger, High-Exposure Cases
The San Francisco Superior Court is offering litigants a new Judicial Settlement Conference (JSC) program aimed at cases with an estimated 20 or more trial days, Presiding Judge Teri L. Jackson announced today. Presiding Judge Jackson has selected Judge Angela…
Risk Management Tip: Keep Invoices Bland
For generations California attorneys have understood the attorney-client privilege is an absolute shield against discovery. Case after case has broadly interpreted and reinforced the strength of the privilege. Three cases in 2016 demonstrated the continued force of this shield. In…
Anti-SLAPP: A Powerful Tool Against Third Party Claims
An unintended consequence of California’s Anti-Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation statute (Anti-SLAPP), C.C.P. § 425.16, is the protection afforded attorneys against claims by non-clients. Enacted in 1992, it was designed to protect free-speech activities against retaliatory lawsuits, but it also…
"No Sleeping on the Job!" California Supreme Court Rules Sleep Time Must be Compensated in Certain Industries
In Mendiola v. CPS Security Solutions, No. S212704 (Cal. January 8, 2015), the Supreme Court of California ruled that employers cannot exclude sleep time from wages during “on call” time by agreement between the employer and the employee unless a state wage order…
Meet Barristers Litigation Section Leader Evangeline Burbidge
Evangeline (“Evan”) Burbidge is an attorney at Lewis & Llewellyn, a San Francisco litigation boutique firm focusing on high-stakes civil cases. An active BASF member, she currently serves as a co-vice chair on the Executive Committee for the Barristers Litigation…
Post-Threat Analysis: SCOTUS reverses conviction in online threats case
On June 1, 2015, in Elonis v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision that a Pennsylvania man’s conviction for posting threatening Facebook posts regarding his estranged wife was a reversible error. The Supreme Court held…
Battery Liability for Offending Unusually Sensitive Sense of Personal Dignity
Under new rules, promulgated by the powerful American Law Institute, offending ultra-sensitive people now carries battery liability. In the olden days, battery was considered an offensive “unwanted touching” based on the reasonable person standard, for example, grabbing a menu out…
I've Been Hacked. Have I Been Damaged?
Pleading computer fraud damages Computer fraud has been a hot topic in the news with seemingly new lawsuits everyday. Nevertheless, plaintiffs seem to have difficulty pleading damages. Although there is some nuance, pleading damages is a fairly straightforward process as…
Is Litigation More of a Science Than an Art?
BASF’s Litigation Section will be hosting its annual Bench Bar Conference on October 16 to bring together judges, academics, and attorneys to discuss research on the science of decision making and persuasion. The event, entitled “Is Litigation More of a…
Innovation Needed to Attract Silicon Valley In-House Counsel
In a meeting billed as the “In-House Counsel Summit” on Wednesday afternoon, a panel of three legal leaders from prominent Silicon Valley hi-tech companies moderated by David Bruns, Director of Client Services at Farella Braun + Martel LLP, spoke to…